


Call it a Favor

by I_reallyreally_hatemakingusernames



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eclipse AU, also twilight canon did the wolves so dirty and we ARE fixing that, jacob black is the ray of sunshine we all know he is, smeyer isn't allowed anywhere near maria but man did i want her to be in eclipse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24028444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_reallyreally_hatemakingusernames/pseuds/I_reallyreally_hatemakingusernames
Summary: "Jasper thinks we could use some help...He's considering talking to Maria." Eclipse AU where Jasper weighs the pros and the cons, swallows his pride, and calls María for help--and she answers.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Call it a Favor

**Author's Note:**

> listen, it's not very relevant to this story, but since it's my eclipse rewrite and i get to make the rules, the bella-jacob "kiss" never happened. assume that the characterization of jacob is based on new-moon pre-transformation and you're good to go. this story picks up after that because i wanted to get to maría, but it's still important to me that you all know this. assume he just confessed his feelings and bella freaked out out of guilt. cheers!

Alice’s graduation party was, unfortunately, exactly what I had been expecting.

What had to be the entire senior class of Forks High, and then some, was packed into the Cullen’s living room. Bouncing along to pop music so loud I could feel it buzzing in my teeth, lights strobing over them in every color of the rainbow. It felt like a scene from a TV show, or maybe a spy movie—the crowded nightclub the protagonist ducks into for a clandestine meeting. Completely out of place in the sleepy town of Forks.

If it hadn’t been for Edward’s arm around my waist, I would’ve made a break for it a _long_ time ago.

As it was—well, I couldn’t think of a better place to be than here, with my head on Edward’s shoulder, his fingers gentle on my side, tapping along to the beat. Even with the music.

And then he winced. I craned my head up, instantly on edge.

“Trouble?”

“In a manner of speaking.” He nodded towards the seething dance floor. “Jessica Stanley’s about to pop out of the crowd and ask you to come dance with her.”

“Oh, that _is_ trouble.”

“Maybe you should go.” He smirked down at me, and I fought the urge to punch him—I did _not_ need to sprain a wrist attacking a supernatural creature. “This is a party.”

“You know, contrary to what you seem to believe, not all humans enjoy those.”

“Everyone here seems to be having a good time.”

Before I could formulate a retort, Jessica shoved her way past two headbanging boys and locked eyes with me.

“Oh my god, Bella!”

I leaned in closer to Edward. “Any chance of a well-timed vampire massacre?”

He grinned, and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “None at all, I’m afraid.”

“ _Bella_.” Jessica grabbed my arm, grin wild. “You _have_ to come dance with us, oh my god. Eric bet Mike that he could macarena longer than him, and they’ve both been going for three songs now—”

Edward snorted, and I glared at him. His shrug was tiny, and not apologetic in the slightest.

“Jess, I don’t really—”

“Bella Swan, don’t you _dare_ tell me you don’t dance. I _saw_ you at prom with Edward—oh, hi Edward—and this is _your_ party, and even Angela’s dancing so—”

Beside me, Edward went stone-still. Jessica was still talking, tugging at my arm, but my ears were buzzing, panic suddenly tight in my stomach.

“Edward…?” He looked down at me—his eyes were completely flat, and my heart ricocheted up a beat.

“Go dance with her, love.” His voice was eerily smooth, and did absolutely _nothing_ to help my panic. And then he pulled his arm free from my waist, and dipped to press his lips against my ear. “Whatever you do, don’t go outside.”

I was frozen. No—my legs were moving, letting Jessica pull me along, but ice was creeping through my chest. What was going _on_?

My eyes caught Esme and Carlisle at the door that led out to the balcony, Emmett and Rose threading their way towards it through the crowd—

And then a cold arm threaded around my waist, and Alice’s voice rang out over the music.

“Sorry, Jess! I’m gonna have to steal Bella for a second.”

Jessica shouted something in reply—I couldn’t tell what through the blood roaring in my ears, but she tossed her hands up and vanished back into the crowd, and then Alice was steering me towards the front hallway, muttering so quickly I could barely follow the words.

“Edward doesn’t want to tell you what’s going on. Personally I think that’s a stupid decision—but you do have to promise not to panic before I say anything.”

My back thudded against the wall, and I stared down at Alice—her eyes flashed back the eerie colors of the strobe lights, face set still as stone.

“Alice, I’m panicking not knowing what’s going on.” My voice was shakier than I wanted it to be. “Please.”

“Okay.” She bit her lip. “Jasper did something _incredibly_ stupid. I’m not sure why I couldn’t see it coming sooner, maybe she was telling herself that she wasn’t actually coming up here to see us? Anyways, she isn’t here yet, so there’s a chance to cut her off, and even if we don’t everything’s still under control, this is just a kinda bad time to have a house full of humans—”

“Alice. You’re, um, rambling a little.”

“Ugh!” She pressed her hands to her temples. “You’re right. I’m sorry, this was just…unexpected. Um. The best way to put this is probably— _shit!_ ”

“Alice!”

“Did you invite the werewolves?” she demanded, stabbing a furious thumb at the door. My mind was reeling, panic winding even tighter, but...Jacob. Right. I _had_ invited him, before...

“Yes?”

“Oh, this is _fantastic_.” She buried her hands in her hair and tugged. “Just when I _really_ need to be able to see.”

“Alice, _what_ is going on?!”

“We’ve got a...visitor.” She sucked in a breath, and shook her head. “Just get rid of the wolves. Quickly if you can. I’ll—find you when they’re gone.”

And then she vanished.

I was alone in the hallway, with the flickers from the strobe lights and the anxiety winding its way up from my fingertips, heavy and buzzing and—

The doorbell pealed. I heaved in a breath—I could do this. Just get rid of Jacob. Find Alice. Figure out what was going on before…

I eased the door open.

Jacob jumped a little, yanking his hand away from the doorbell—and then he glanced up at me, and broke into a smile.

“Bella.”

My stomach unknotted, just a little, in spite of myself. He’d dressed up for the party, white button-down neatly pressed, and braided his hair back carefully. It was unexpectedly sweet, and it changed absolutely nothing.

“Jake, you have to leave.” His face crumpled—I fixed my gaze carefully over his shoulder, and jumped. Embry and Quil were behind him, both determinedly avoiding eye contact, and looking decidedly awkward. Quil’s attention was fixed on rolling the sleeves of his flannel, and Embry was toying anxiously with his earring.

“Bells, Bella, wait. Can you just...hear me out?”

“Jake, now is really not the time—”

“I came to apologize.” He took a step closer, and I couldn’t help meeting his eyes again—they were painfully earnest, and I _didn’t have time for this_. “I shouldn’t have said...what I did. I want you to be happy, and I get it if that’s with him, I just—I was really tired, and I know that’s not a good reason, but I let my mouth run away with me. I’m okay being just friends, I really am. I’m sorry.”

“Jacob—”

He dropped his gaze, raising his hands in surrender.

“That’s all I had to say, and you can kick me out in a second, but I _did_ bring you a graduation present. If you want it.”

“Jake...” I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the urge to scream. “I don’t _want_ to kick you out. This is just—a really bad time.”

“Bad time how?” An edge crept into his voice. I opened my eyes warily—all three of them were suddenly tense. I could almost see them bristling. “Bloodsucker stuff?”

My stomach went ice-cold again, this time with the realization of how very, very wrong this could end up going. Whatever Jasper had done, the Cullens were scared, enough so that they _needed_ Alice’s advantage. They were clearly trying to handle it quietly—and I’d just dragged three werewolves into the mess.

“Nope!” The reply came out nauseatingly bright. “Just your standard bad high-school party stuff. I...have a headache, and I was leaving actually, so—”

“Bella.” Jacob’s voice was dead serious. “You can’t keep us out of this. There’s a house full of high-schoolers behind you, and if whatever’s happening is serious, they’re all in danger. Danger we exist to protect people from.”

“We have a right to know what’s going on,” Quil finished, kicking off his sneakers. Beside him, Embry shrugged out of his hoodie, leaving only a ratty T-shirt that he would phase through in a second.

“Guys—please—” I needed a way to stall. I needed Alice to come back with her explanation, even though I hadn’t gotten rid of the wolves. I needed—

Jacob shook his head. “I guess I have to apologize again, Bells. But this one’s bigger than you. There’s a whole lot of innocent people in there. Either you tell us what’s going on, or we go wolf and follow the bloodsuckers’ scent until we find out ourselves.”

I bit my lip, harder than I would normally have let myself, and tasted blood.

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Jacob’s eyes softened slightly, but all three boys stayed poised to spring, eerily graceful. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know _exactly_.” Jacob crossed his arms and I mirrored him, suddenly annoyed. “I don’t! I was just at the party, and Edward and his family vanished. Alice was _about_ to tell me what was going on, but then you three showed up, and she told me to get rid of you so she could see. That’s all I know.”

“She didn’t say anything else?” Jacob frowned and went to rake a hand through his hair—then realized it was braided and dropped the hand uselessly to his side. “Is it something to do with the bloodsucker in your room?”

“I...don’t know.” The wolves still didn’t know about the army, I realized, the dread in my stomach squeezing somehow tighter.

“Bella?” Of _course_ he knew me well enough to pick up on that. “What aren’t you telling us?”

“It’s—not about this.” Jacob swore softly, and I winced.

“But you _do_ know something else you’re not telling me. Something big.”

“It’s not important! The Cullens can handle it, and I don’t want any of you getting hurt!” I made desperate eye contact with Quil and Embry. Maybe they would understand, back me up—

“Bella, that’s not your choice,” Jacob said, getting louder. “All of us are in this fight. We didn’t _get_ a choice about that!”

“Jake? Not super important right now,” Embry muttered. Jacob turned to glare at him, but he held his ground, eyebrows raised.

“Fine.” Jacob spun back to face me, shoulders slumping. “Fine. Just...do you know where the Cullens are now? We should figure out what’s going on.”

“I...they went out the back door. Onto the balcony. They could be anywhere by now.”

“Then we’ll start there. Can we come in?” He flashed me a smile—sharp and sarcastic and absolutely nothing like the grin he’d been wearing when he first saw me.

I exhaled quietly, and stepped out of the doorway.

“I’ll show you where they went.”

* * *

I stepped onto the balcony last, pausing to slide the door shut. The music cut off, eerily abrupt—idly, I wondered why they’d bothered soundproofing the house—

And then I turned to the woods, met bright red eyes shining from the edge of the trees, and everything happened at once.

* * *

Jacob grabbed my arm, and shoved me to the corner of the balcony, away from the glass, so fast I barely caught myself on the rail. Quil and Embry vaulted off the edge in perfect unison—I could hear fabric tearing, and the two of them twisted gracefully in mid-air, hitting the ground on four paws. Jacob was still in the middle of the balcony, frantically unbuttoning the dress shirt—and then there was a rush of air, and the red wolf was jerking its head furiously, like it wanted me to move closer—

My heart was clawing its way up my throat, pins and needles stinging in my fingertips, but I stumbled towards him as fast as I could, too shocked to do anything else.

“ _Stop!_ ” It took me a second to place the voice as Jasper's—his accent was stronger than I’d ever heard it, sharpened by the frantic edge to his words. “She was _invited_.”

It was still hard to breathe—but I wrenched my gaze off of Jacob, back to the ground below us.

Quil and Embry were still wolves, poised and growling, and…side-by-side with the Cullens, who were frozen in an arc, facing into the woods.

Facing Jasper, who was alone between them and the trees, staring back with a hand held out warningly, teeth bared and gleaming in the moonlight. And behind him…

The other vampire was lounging against a tree, blood-red eyes still locked on me. She caught my gaze and smiled—a beautiful smile, teeth bright and perfect.

“Not only werewolves, but the human this is all about. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

There was a trace of a Spanish accent in her voice, and everything clicked into place. The fear palpable in the air, Jasper poised to defend _her—_ and the scars, ghostly silver against her dark skin.

“María,” I whispered.

Her grin widened.


End file.
